...triathlete, paraglider pilot, ultra runner, and adventure racer.
The 2015 X-Alps turned out to be a great race! What's my next adventure...?

Dawn - Sometimes An Ultrarunner

July 30, 2016

RAGBRAI 2016 Day 6: Ottumwa to Washington, 68.5 Miles

Somehow the week of RAGBRAI has gone very fast. I guess that means we are enjoying ourselves :). Waking up this morning with just two days and a night left was a shock. So were the rain clouds. The cool weather was nice, and the tailwind. Today's ride was almost 70 miles so nothing to take lightly. A little push from the wind was always nice. Jim said "what tailwind?" Then looked at his speedometer which said 20 mph. Oh.

The clouds threatened all day but it never did more than sprinkle. I found pancakes for breakfast which I had been dreaming about, but true to form was hungry again 5 miles later. Then it seemed like some of the roadside stands had been scared off by the rain. The pass through towns were a little short on food too. Partly that was our fault...we saw large signs for a root beer float on the other side of town and passed up everything else. Then the root beer stand just wasn't there. Doh. And it was then 20 miles to the next town. Argh. Luckily the Amish stand saved our bacon with fresh pie and homemade ice cream.

But there was definitely less pie and cookies than usual on the route today. Everyone is starting to look a little ....haggard. I'm sure we all have sore legs and butts. The band played until 1 am last night, and the fireworks woke everyone up at 10:30. Not sure if I could drink and party and still get up to ride the next morning!

But the rain held away from the route and overnight town even if there were flash flood warnings all around us. The sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon. We are looking forward to a short flat day to finish tomorrow.

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About Me

A friend said to me back in 2005, "Hey, you want to do a marathon this weekend?" Without any training, and never having run farther than 6 miles, I agreed to attempt it, and my ultrarunning career was begun.
Most of my long-distances running experience has been in Germany while I was posted there, as part of the volksmarching IVV organization.
Once moving to the UK, I took up fells running in England's wild national parks. I also discovered my love of Adventure Racing in the UK,as there are great races and a high level of competition.
Now I am trying to combine my love of Paragliding with running to hike up into the mountains and then fly home!